Speak Lord

"To whom much is given shall much be required"

Luke 12: 48

~~~

'Speak Lord,Thy servant heareth'

After
this event things seemed to be different somehow. I would find verses
of Scripture that stood out and challenged me about song writing and
singing. I collected them all because I believed the Lord was using them
to communicate His will and His plan for my life. I placed each one of
them in a little book I bought specifically for this purpose and
entitled it “Speak Lord, thy servant heareth.” (1 Samuel 3: 9.)

As time
went on I would often resort to this little book and pray over the
verses it contained. It seemed the more I prayed, the more convicted I
became and I was given more and more verses of encouragement and
guidance. I also found other writings I thought would be helpful and
took extracts from my journal that helped to build up a clearer picture
of the Lord's will for me

“And the LORD said unto him (Moses),what is that in thy hand?And he said, A rod” Exodus 4: 2

Contemplating
these words before the Lord I wrote in my journal in 1992 “And what is
that in my hand? I have many talents, skills, and abilities in my hands.
I have the ability to compose music. I can sing. And now I have a newly
discovered gift of poetry and song writing, as well as the many
precious thoughts and meditations that I have written and collected
during my quiet times alone with the Lord. The waiting has been so very
long and hard at times but many lessons have been learned along the way.
While I have been waiting I have been storing up for future use the
things I know that the Lord will one day make use of. May He be pleased
to help me to be faithful ...”

A
short while after that day came to me another challenge to me from the
Gospel of Matthew - the parable of the talents. The Lord spoke of a man
who went into a far country, and he left with his servants a certain
amount of talents each for them to invest as they seemed fit. To one he
gave five talents, to another he gave two and to another he gave one,
and then went on his journey. Those with five and two talents went and
invested the money and it doubled in value. The servant who was left
with only one talent went and hid it in the earth out of sight until the
return of his master. Upon the master's return he who had been
entrusted with the five talents had five more to give back to his
Master. Likewise with the one unto whom was given two talents. But he
who only had the one to take care of hid it away safely and gave it back
when his master returned. (Nothing lost but nothing gained either!) The
Master was pleased with the servants who gave back to him his talents
with increase but with the one who returned the talent with no extra he
voiced his great displeasure and sent him away with shame. (See Matthew 25: 14 – 30)

I
thought to myself: “I have been entrusted with many talents. I cannot,
and must not be like the one who was afraid, but I want to be a faithful
steward of all He has given to me because when all is said and done I
have to answer to Him and Him alone for all that I am and all that I
have” I was mindful of the words of the Lord who said: “To whom much is given shall much be required” Luke 24: 48. When I stand before my Lord one day soon, I dare not come before Him empty handed. I cannot tell Him that: “I was afraid and hid my talents away,”
because I was aware that my ‘many talents' were God given. I also had a
growing collection of His promises and instructions of which these were
some:

"God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen,yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence."1 Corinthians 1: 27-29